Dewey, to get back to your original question, Here are a couple of well-documented discussions of genetically modified foods: click here and here. The source of these articles, The Environmental Research Foundation, while it certainly has a bias against the agricultural-industrial complex, does its homework as far as reviewing the scientific literature. And I used to own an organic orchard, so I'll admit that I tend to share that bias--but I'm impressed with their thoroughness and lack of hysteria.

There are "hidden costs" to the widespread use of GMOs (genetically modified organisms). For example, one of the currently "popular" genetically modified crops turns out to produce a substance that is toxic to insects which feed on the crop and are part of the local food chain/ecosystem, and nobody knows what effect that will have on the overall viability of the system (sorry, I can't recall the specifics).

And while it may be true in one sense that all of agriculture is a result of "genetic modification", there is a difference between cross-breeding and hybridizing plants on the one hand, and inserting alien genes into an organism's chromosomes on the other.

If you want more information about this, I'd recommend getting a free email subscription to "Rachel's Environment and Health Newsletter", which you can do through the Environmental Research Federation link above. It's an eye-opener.

One of the problems with talking about this stuff to people is that you very quickly start to sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist. The problem is, companies like Monsanto really HAVE been trying to take over the world's food production, with the help of the US Government. The hopeful news, as documented in the two articles linked above, is that US farmers are starting to cut back on planting GMO crops, because the worldwide demand is going down, not up -- in fact, non-modified crops in some markets now command a premium price.

Aloha,
Mark